~ ANNE! ~

Two more days! Mind you, I do not actually get to ride the rails From Sea to Sea, but merely From Prairie to Sea. Which is more than good enough for me. (I nearly wrote "from sea to shining sea." Argh! how American! That song somehow colonized my brain during the Stanley Cup playoffs, when I heard it at least once every week). (The guy who sings the national anthems for the Oilers' home games is called Paul Lorieau and is the optician that I once dragged Zach to when I suspected he was too blind to drive, but he wouldn't admit it). (Was that off topic?)

Yup, a little tired today. What a weekend. Feast this week involved pie - lots and lots of pie. My favorite was the chicken pie, but the pumpkin was certainly nothing to sneeze at. Malcolm brought some Lagavulin (and some chocolate to distract Steph from that fact) and good conversation inevitably ensued.

Sophie stayed with me for what is likely the last time this weekend - as she got a place to live in Edmonton! Hurrah! She accomplished this by the time-honoured method of calling my landlord. He always has something available, and he does eventually fix fridges. Email me for the number! Anyway, she will practically be my neighbor, which is very exciting.

Saturday night was an entirely new experience. I shall draw you a timeline of a long and strange story:

Sunday, 12 pm - Lana is volunteering at the HIV/AIDS walk and comes across a florist.

2 pm - She goes out to the Roost with him. She TELLS HIM HER BIRTHDATE, a secret so deep and dark that none of her friends were previously in the know. Why did she decide to tell a florist in an orange furry hoodie? Only Lana knows.

5 pm - She brings the florist to my house for tea.

8 pm - He tells me that if I had flowers he would throw them out, and almost gets thrown out himself.

9 pm - He is new and therefore not allowed to do dishes, so we converse. I decide to forgive him for the flower-throwing comment.

Tuesdayish - the florist invites Lana and eight of her closest friends to a flower-arranging night at his shop. For free.

Wednesdayish - Said friends jump at the chance. I talk to the florist for 45 minutes while walking home. I decide the florist is probably worth talking to.

Fridayish - Turns out the flower-arranging is the next day. We arrange plans accordingly.

Saturday, 5.30 pm - Steph, Sophie, Lana, Catherine and I arrive at Lana's house. We gawk at her closet. Steph makes secret plans to stage a Closet Intervention in the near future.

6.10 pm - We arrive at the shop to find a catered spread fit for a queen. We stuff our faces.

7 pm - After a short lecture about flower-arranging, we arrange flowers. Lots of flowers. Steph's includes four gerberas and nothing else. Sophie's is rejected, pulled apart and rebuilt by the florist, whose sensibilities it offends. Catherine's tips over and over and over. Lana's is L-shaped. And mine suffers the indignity of having its central white lily bodily removed and spray-painted blue. However, with the addition of yellow-orange roses it is pronouced "a good colour scheme" that "won't blend in with my white walls".

8 pm - much wine is consumed by the florist and I.

11.00 pm - we try to leave. It takes us an hour to get around to it.

12 am - we actually get out the door and manage to stuff ourselves and our flowers into the car. Lana turns the key. The car remains silent.

12. 01 am - Sophie and the florist call AMA.

12. 30 am - it turns out the florist keeps a giant air mattress in the back of his shop for occasions such as this. By this point, this does not seem strange at all. We have a nap.

1.30 am - the AMA guy shows up. He shows us the massive amount of battery corrosion and is given a floral arrangement for his trouble. He looks slightly confused, but pleased.

1.45 am - The six of us plus five giant floral arrangements somehow squish into a smallish car. We take the opportunity to sing a Queen medley. People in passing cars stare. Then they slow down to pace us, so they can stare some more. We redouble our efforts on "Bohemian Rhapsody".

1.50 am - We have reached the quiet, heartfelt bit of "Bohemian Rhapsody". It is perhaps not as well-suited to this particular choir. "That didn't go so well," Sophie says quietly to herself.

2 am - Lana's house. We get our cars. Steph and I give the florist a ride to Fort Saskatchewan. I thank my lucky stars that Steph is stuck being DD so I can doze in the back.

2.45 am - We get lost, of course. But only a bit lost.

3.00 am - Steph drops my flowers and I off. Poor Sophie has had to wait up to let me in. Luckily, the buzzer to my apartment now works.

3.30 - I fall into bed.

Oh, and don't you think that was ALL I did this weekend. Margaret and Morgan, my favorite farmers, were in town on their honeymoon trip. So what else to do but have a Sunday-night party?

It is perhaps no surprise that I'm exhausted today.

p.s. For all your flower needs - check out Elegant Solutions. And no, this entry was not sponsored.